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Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, the National Football League's reigning Most Valuable Player, will be the featured guest at the Rochester Press-Radio Club Dinner.

Ryan led the Falcons to the team's second appearance in the Super Bowl after passing for 4,944 yards with 38 touchdowns against seven interceptions this past season in the NFL. The Falcons held a 25-point lead in the third quarter of the Super Bowl on Feb. 5, but New England rallied and won in overtime 34-28.

The 31-year old Ryan will receive the Rochester Press-Radio Club's Coca-Cola Sports Personality of the Year Award during the Champions Children's Charity dinner April 20 inside the Joseph Floreano Riverside Convention Center in downtown Rochester.

Buffalo Sabres forward Brian Gionta, who was raised in Greece and graduated from Aquinas Institute, will join Ryan at the dinner's head table and receive the Major Donald Holleder Award. This is Gionta's 14th season in the National Hockey League.

This is the club's 68th annual dinner, and it has raised and donated more than $1,000,000 charities during those decades. Former New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera, who is expected to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible, was the dinner's headline guest last May.

Ryan's touchdown passes this past season were spread among 13 players, another sign that the former standout at Boston College has moved into the NFL's group of elite quarterbacks.

Tickets for the dinner are $135, $1,250 for a table of 10. There is a package available that offers a private "meet and greet'' with Ryan that can be had for $750, which buys two dinner tickets, two 8-by-10 professional photos of Ryan, along with a football autographed by the third overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.

VIP reception tickets are $250 per person, and include a chance to meet Ryan, receive an autographed picture of the Exton, Pennsylvania, native and receive a ticket to the dinner. Reservations can be made with credit cards or money orders at 585-340-1460.